It's hard to believe that something so intriguing and beautiful could be so destructive, but anyone who has watched a Tomato Hornworm at work knows all too well that this is not a caterpillar that merits rolling out the welcome mat. I found this little one, about an inch long, blithely devouring tomato leaves, as we searched the garden for potential pests during an afternoon walk, and my granddaughter Stasia was mesmerized by the creature, a member of the Sphinx Moth clan that is known to entomologists as Manduca quinquemaculata, a.k.a., the Five-Spotted Hawkmoth. (This particular common name comes from the fact that the typical large adult, which can have a wingspan in excess of five inches, has five pairs of yellow spots on the abdomen.) The caterpillars are eating machines, and by the time the "hornworm," a reference to the evil-looking but apparently harmless spine on its rear end, reaches its maximum length of perhaps four inches, all too much of a tomato plant, including the fruit, can be reduced to frass, or, less politely, insect poop. This one, which has already done its share of damage, won't get the chance to thrive at our expense. After photographing the exceptionally pretty pest, I pitched it into the woods. Let it eat, well, weeds.